A People Who Cast Off Worldly Greed
10Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 11“Pass through the middle of the camp, and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare food; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.’” 12Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, saying, 13“Remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying, ‘Yahweh your God gives you rest, and will give you this land. 14Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, shall live in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but you shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them 15until Yahweh has given your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they have also possessed the land which Yahweh your God gives them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.’” 16They answered Joshua, saying, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17Just as we listened to Moses in all things, so will we listen to you. Only may Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses. 18Whoever rebels against your commandment, and doesn’t listen to your words in all that you command him shall himself be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”
2. The Believer Who Is Loved by the Lord
The Loveliest Song
An Olympic medal is the fruit of an athlete’s sweat and effort. The sweat athletes shed is rewarded through the medal. Likewise, parents who have worked hard and given themselves for their children are repaid when they see their children living confidently in the world. When athletes train hard but fail to win a medal, people sometimes refuse to recognize all the sweat and effort they have poured in.
In the same way, God sacrificed himself for our salvation, the Holy Spirit walks with us, and God has made us his children. Yet if we do not keep to our part as his people, all God’s effort and sacrifice come to nothing. But even without winning a medal, the athlete would have given their best every day. So too, even when we have not lived according to God’s will, God’s love and sacrifice are precious in themselves.
After receiving his calling from God, Joshua prepared the people to enter Canaan, and through much prayer and training he finished his own preparation as well. Israel had suffered much from the time it received God’s promise until it came to Canaan, but now the time had truly come to go in. God had said that he had already given Canaan, and he would give it. But if the people hesitated, afraid of the Anakim, there would be no way to show that the promise was true. When they trusted the promise and acted on it fully, they could receive the blessing God had prepared for them and show that God’s word holds no lie.
Joshua commanded the officers to have the people prepare food, since within three days they would cross the Jordan and enter Canaan, which God had given them. The moment they had waited for so long had come. Many of God’s plans can be accomplished only through obedience in a faith that goes beyond human ability. God wants to show through people of faith the things only he can do, so those who believe in God can accomplish his will only if they have absolute faith. To reach the land of Canaan held by the Anakim, Joshua and the people would never win this war unless they depended on God with an even firmer faith. Faith alone would bring them into Canaan.
Joshua 1:12-13
12Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, saying, 13“Remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying, ‘Yahweh your God gives you rest, and will give you this land.
As the people of Israel were on their way to Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, thought it a good land to live in, and wanted to stay there. Rather than taking their many livestock and families all the way to Canaan, they wanted to settle in this peaceful land. They went to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the princes of the congregation and asked to dwell in this land. When Moses heard it, he was angry and rebuked them, asking why they meant to stay here instead of entering the land of Canaan that God had given.
The reason was that their decision could have split apart the community of Israel, which made it something that could never be pardoned. If the land was good for raising livestock, the other tribes would want to stay too. The other tribes had put aside their desires and obeyed, even when they saw good land, because God had told them to go into Canaan. But the request of these three tribes was a proposal that could divide Israel. When the three tribes said they would stay in Gilead, the people of Israel, who had pressed on with their eyes fixed only on Canaan, were thrown into confusion.
In the same way, when believers settle down in the world and think only of their own ease, they are dividing the community that is the church, since the Kingdom of God can grow only when every one of us throws off worldly greed and temptation and works together so that the community accomplishes God’s will. The church is the community of those who are saved, and at the same time it is also made up of members who must work together to bring about good for Christ.
Carrying out God’s commands is sometimes hard, and there are times when we must give of our means, our talents, and our abilities. The reason we must give ourselves to the gospel even when it differs a little from our own thinking is so that we do not tear down the church community. I hope you, too, will keep firmly in mind that the church does not exist for your own benefit and is not a place for being waited on, and that you will give yourselves for the community.
Moses reminded them of the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea and explained in detail the suffering that the unbelief of ten of the twelve spies had brought on Israel. Because of God’s anger, everyone twenty years old and upward who had come out of Egypt had died in the wilderness, so he also warned them that this action of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh could bring God’s anger on Israel again. Hearing Moses, the three tribes were greatly afraid and made him a proposal.
Numbers 32:16-19
16They came near to him, and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones; 17but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 18We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have each inherited their inheritance. 19For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.”
As recorded in Numbers 32, the three tribes promised that they would not simply look on while their brothers went into Canaan, and that once they had built cities where their families could live, they would go at the front. With this proposal they were saying that they were not asking for this land only for their own comfort. Hearing them, Moses said that if they all armed themselves, crossed the Jordan, and fought for their brothers until the land was subdued, they would be guiltless before Yahweh, but if not, he would count it as sin against Yahweh. Because they had offered to sacrifice themselves, crossing the Jordan ahead of their brothers so that the other tribes could enter Canaan safely, Moses thought their proposal was not so bad.
Today’s passage is Joshua commanding the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to keep the promise they had made to Moses. To keep their word, the three tribes obeyed and crossed the Jordan into Canaan ahead of their brothers. Having taken good land before the other tribes, they thought it only right to give themselves. To nomads, broad highlands and rich forests are good conditions for raising livestock. So it was fitting that the three tribes, who had found a settled life before their landless brothers, should sacrifice themselves for them.
This is exactly the attitude we must take if we have received more of the world’s goods than our brothers and sisters. Just as these tribes received the fertile land of Gilead before reaching their final destination, Canaan, that is, heaven, God wants those who have much to give themselves more than their brothers and sisters who have little. If, like the three tribes, you are living in more comfort than others, you must have the faith to give yourself first and a heart willing to sacrifice. If, like the three tribes, you have a love that goes before others and sacrifices itself until your brothers and sisters obtain a land of rest, God will keep your family and livestock safe so that you can do even more.
Had the three tribes stubbornly insisted on staying in Gilead no matter what, God would not have forgiven them for tearing down the community, and they would not have kept that fertile land. God does not give us many worldly blessings so that we can enjoy the comforts of the flesh alone. It is his request that, since we have received more than our brothers and sisters, we go first in fulfilling our calling and help the weaker ones. A brother or sister in hardship, after all, must spend much of their time just securing food, clothing, and shelter, and even if they want to fulfill their calling, it is not easy for them to give themselves to it. The three tribes had left their families and livestock in a safe place, and so they could go into Canaan and fight without worry.
What is sad is that churches and believers who have received God’s attention and grace in abundance are, instead, so drawn toward the world that they turn aside to the right hand or to the left and cannot keep their balance. Though they ought to sacrifice themselves to accomplish God’s will, they refuse to sacrifice and do not want to share. When people who serve God act this way, it is because their every standard of judgment is the world.
They choose the world over God far too easily. The root of it is that the God who receives their worship is invisible, while the world is something they collide with bodily, so they put the things of the world ahead of God. However sick they are, they rarely take time off from work or school. Yet if they are even slightly tired, they think it perfectly natural to skip worship so they can go to work or school the next day. The reason is that work is tied to the money that secures the family’s well-being, while church, they think, can be neglected. It shows that they treasure what is seen more than the unseen grace that sustains them.
They do not hold back money for their children or for their own hobbies and pleasures. But the offerings they give to God they always calculate, taking care to give exactly. They earnestly want God’s help to earn more, yet when God actually gives them abundant wealth, they reckon to the last penny what they give back to him.
When they succeed in life beyond anything they imagined, they say it is God’s grace. But when the time comes to give to God in proportion to what they have earned, they do their sums and make excuses: they cannot give this for one reason, and it is hard to give that for another. They make these excuses because such people think it natural to use their earnings for themselves rather than to heed God’s command and promise. As I always say, I am not saying that we should not save and be generous for the happiness and peace of our families. I am speaking of the heart of those who cannot give God what is God’s.
Friends, I hope you will think carefully about this. God is your future and your children’s, and he is your protector. We who acknowledge this say in prayer every day that we can give our lives to God and that we will live for him. Yet to calculate so strictly where money is concerned is, I would say, plainly a contradiction. We pray for God to secure our lives and our comfort, and promise that if he blesses us we will live for him. But if, once life becomes abundant, we always put ourselves before God, how must God feel?
Those who are further along in faith must show an honest faith, if only for the sake of the young believers following behind them. That is what it means to set an example, and through that devotion the Kingdom of God expands. When, like the three tribes, the brothers and sisters who first received much bear the calling, the weaker ones will meanwhile build up their strength and grow in faith. Having seen and learned from the devotion of those who went ahead, as they grow they will naturally come to share in the work. A church that grows like this is a church able to do God’s work, an honest and holy community.
Suppose the three tribes had taken better land than their brothers and then told them, on the eve of battle, that now that they were settled they could not help them. What would you say to them? When people regard the possessions God has given as their own, their hearts grow hard. And not only over money: when feelings are hurt, or because of relationships, people often show this same face once their desire for the world gets ahead of worship.
But such thinking is the sinful heart of foolish people deceived by Satan. Since God alone can resolve everything you go through in life, you must not neglect the worship you offer him. Neglecting it is what the spiritually blind do, so we must always be on guard. God is the one who searches hearts. If you stand at the crossroads of good and evil and hesitate, unable to choose by faith, God, who sees you there, will be disappointed.
Moses told the three tribes who wanted to settle that staying here instead of entering Canaan would bring them under judgment. From this we see that halting our growth in faith for the sake of the flesh is, in the end, a sin against God. When God gives his people comfort in the flesh, he is removing needless worries so that they will not get in the way of their devotion. When the three tribes promised that their men would go to the battlefield while their families stayed out of danger, Moses gladly gave them the land, which shows that their decision was right. When we are not content with the world’s abundance but take up God’s work, God guards our families and possessions.
God always wants those who are first to go ahead and fulfill their calling for the sake of those who are last. We do not, of course, do God’s work in order to protect our worldly blessings. But it is God’s grace that, when we serve faithfully, he guards our families and property so that we can do even more.
If you are mature in faith, then may you, like the three tribes, stand at the front of God’s people and give yourselves with all your might so that your brothers and sisters can meet God. Like the Lord who kept calling workers even an hour before the vineyard closed, though there were already workers in it, we must give ourselves wholeheartedly to the Kingdom of God until the moment God calls us.
To have mature faith is to have thrown off all greed and lust, and so neither Satan nor the powers of the world hold any terror. Satan, rather, will be afraid of believers who fulfill their calling without greed or fear. As the people of Israel headed for Canaan saw the three tribes go out in front, their hearts would have been all the fuller. You are soldiers of the cross fighting a spiritual war. Let us, then, lay down the world, which Satan uses as his weapon, and cross the Jordan.
Moses told the three tribes that once all their brothers had received their share of the land, they could go back and live in the land given to them. In the same way, those who have fought the good fight of faith will enjoy the peace God gives. If we fight the good spiritual fight, God will give us the eternal land, heaven, as a gift. Just as Israel entered the Canaan God had prepared, we must live by faith to enter the place Jesus has prepared. Had the three tribes paid no attention while the other tribes risked their lives in battle, and lived comfortably with their families in Gilead, they would have been judged by God.
If we are content merely to attend church and then live in the world as we please, God will discipline us as he judged the people of Israel in the wilderness. It was God who gave them the land of Gilead, and God who took the land of the Anakim and gave it to Israel. If we forget this, we will treat the worldly possessions God has entrusted to us as our own and neglect his work.
But the tribes of Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh were people who believed God’s promise, and so they went boldly toward Canaan ahead of their brothers and fulfilled their calling. Later they settled in Gilead, but they obeyed Joshua’s command and lived as God’s people, receiving and enjoying every blessing God had granted.
Having obeyed Moses, they obeyed Joshua too. That was possible because they looked not at the man but at God working through the leader. They moved in perfect order at Joshua’s command and took the land of Canaan as God led them. For us, too, obeying the word of Jesus Christ is the shortest way to understanding God’s will. When we worship in the church, obey the word of truth our pastor proclaims, and move forward together toward one goal, we can understand God’s will and enjoy the blessings he gives.
Very likely you, too, have received some blessing beyond what other brothers and sisters in the faith have received. My prayer is that you will give of it: money if it is money, talent if it is talent, health if it is health. If you do not give of yourself with the grace you have received, then however many possessions, talents, and health you may have, they have nothing to do with God. If you use the grace you have received as an instrument for expanding the Kingdom of God, God will help you use those possessions and talents well.
The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh gave themselves for their brothers, and as a result went back to their families and lived in peace. May you, too, live a peaceful life in the land God has given you. That peace is a rest only those who have fulfilled their calling can enjoy. The blessing enjoyed by those who have fulfilled their calling is a heavenly blessing that no one can take away. However many possessions you have, if you live by faith, God will begin yet another work to guard that wealth. This is the blessing of God’s people, who enjoy peace in God whether they have much or little.
May you obey God’s word that tells us to be faithful to death, and always give yourselves to him. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.